This is the stump of a pine tree that was recently logged (without permission I expect), and is typical of the wood used to build the house I documented yesterday. I added my foot for scale. My shoe is about 12″/30 cm long, so this is a big tree. But: less than 20 years old.

It was one of a small grove of attractive trees, and we were sorry to see it sacrificed for a few board-feet of shitty lumber, Probably 7-8 meters of the trunk was hauled off; the top and all the smaller branches and needles left behind to rot — and fuel the next wildfire.

Perhaps we should make it a project to bend young trees so they grow crooked, with no commercial value to lumberyards?

When I was growing up, my parents had a philodendron plant in their living room. I was used to seeing it there even as I watched snow piling up outside. It still strikes me as curious when I see one like this, growing on the the side of the road. When we get a frost (always gone with the morning sun) in a month or so, I might wander down there in the morning to see if it has any on it.

I don’t remember when I picked up this log to split wood—three, four years ago? And all of a sudden this year it’s become home to a mushroom, for the first time.